Larry Goodell

Arrival

for John and Jules

Historic ether
as the moon comes up
and mesmerizes,
the glimmer in the clouds
is full burst
the old terms catch the tongue
as well as the new
as seen through
the upheaval of the oral
place takes up dance in the plaza
all lenses along the borders
improve the light
as stars will tell you
late at night – 
as you come home anytime
the light lifts up to greet you
whirling in on the old 66
or I-25 I-10 64 60 285
54 84 to I-40
or descending as the land gets closer
and you bump down on it
you have arrived!
the slightly expanded-out square
like a skirt with the strange toe to Sonora
the state will bring you to
an illumination of its past
as the Voices of the Rio Grande
the Indian Rio Grande is in company
with poverty
as a starving drought will enter your soul
as well as the vistas of gypsum and striking red – 
what sustains and turns into love
is the honesty, the this is   what is what is
and along with this delight
in the friendship of voice
the articulation of friends, the real ones
the real emergence as those who come here long before us
as my father’s mother and father in a wagon from Kansas
as all of us any way we can
arrived where we are as they did in Grenville
in Artesia and Roswell
as you did Connecticut New York Minneapolis and all
or truly emerging up from the ground
and building the first empires here.
Love finds love in happenstance, in chance
in mystery and change
as I celebrate my love    finding New York to New Mexico
and New Mexico already here
may you and you all
see with brighter eyes
and hear what comes to you to hear
as true partnership is possible breaks through like
the moon and shining stars – 
and water, when thought absent,
suddenly surprises as Las Huertas every day
in mind and actuality greets me.
Blessings in festival of the seasonal
reverberates, history making new history
the story telling itself over and over in ever new ways
is what you are beginning to tell.
Love folds out in creaturehood
and presents us with a map of understanding
and your partnership.


Love always and with gratitude June 18th 2016
Wedding Day, from Larry

I wrote this early morning of the wedding of Jules Nyquist and John Roche and was so honored to read it during the wedding ceremony. And Margaret Randall read for John and Jules too. Thanks to all.